Leadership today is in crisis — and it’s closer than we often admit. A recent Barna study found that 42 percent of U.S. pastors have seriously considered quitting full-time ministry in the past year (barna.com). That’s not just a number. It’s a symptom: leaders overwhelmed, hearts exhausted, souls giving way under pressure.
We keep seeing ministers who flame out of ministry, others who are burned out but hanging on by a thread, and churches looking to hire with few prospects. The crisis isn’t a shortage of talent or vision. It’s the quiet erosion of character. Too many leaders are burning out or giving in, their inner life collapsing long before the public failure becomes visible. Others stay in the role but lose their soul, trading depth for production, charisma for character, applause for approval.
And then there’s another group — leaders who have swung to the opposite extreme. After years of doing too much, they’ve overcorrected by doing too little. They call it balance, but sometimes it’s just disengagement cloaked in spiritual language. They’ve traded one problem for another, no longer running on exhaustion, but no longer burning with purpose either.
I’ve seen all of it up close. I’ve felt it in my own heart. And I wrote MetaForge Leadership for anyone standing at the edge of that same cliff, whether you’re already leading or considering a new level of leadership. I wish a book like this had found me when I was just starting out.
Low man wins
I learned one of my core leadership lessons years before I ever carried a Bible into a pulpit. It happened on a high school football field.
It was late in practice, and we were running tackling drills. I came off the line too tall, chest high and confident, and a fullback came straight at me. A split second later, I was flat on my back staring at the sky. My coach’s voice rang out across the field, “Low man wins!”
At that moment, I learned something simple but unforgettable: in football, the player who stays low gains the leverage to hold his ground and drive forward. The one who stands tall gets pushed back. My mistake wasn’t effort. It was posture.
Years later, I realized how much that lesson applies to leadership. In a world obsessed with standing tall — being visible, admired, successful — Jesus taught that the low man really does win. “Humble yourselves before the Lord,” James wrote, “and he will lift you up.” The true test of leadership isn’t how high you rise, but how low you’re willing to go: how grounded, teachable, and surrendered you are before God.
The forge of leadership is built on that same principle: the lower you go, the stronger you become. Humility gives you leverage. Dependence on God gives you staying power. The heat will come, but posture determines whether you grow or collapse.
That’s the heartbeat of MetaForge Leadership: leadership that stays low enough for God to lift.
The MetaForge way
The name MetaForge combines two ideas. “Meta” means beyond — beyond trends, beyond performance, beyond surface leadership. And “forge” speaks of shaping and refining through heat and pressure. Together, they describe what I believe leadership was meant to be: not manufactured, but formed. Not built in comfort, but shaped in fire.
The forge is where God does his slowest and most significant work. It’s where motives are purified, identity is clarified, and humility replaces ambition. The forge doesn’t flatter you, but it forms you. And it doesn’t always look spiritual.
Sometimes we can be so task-oriented, so goal-focused — producing conversions, raising new leaders, preparing the next sermon — that we miss the deeper transformation God is working in us. I’ve preached sermons where everything seemed to click: the stories landed, people nodded, and the response was strong. And I’ve preached sermons where it all fell flat, where the silence felt heavy, and I walked off wondering if I’d failed. But over time I’ve realized God was forming me in both.
He was present in the silence as much as in the applause. In the moments of lack, he was teaching me that success isn’t always visible. And in the victories, he was reminding me not to mistake production for presence.
Sometimes God wants to treasure the walk with you more than the work you do for him. We tend to measure impact by results. God measures it by relationship. You can lead a thriving ministry and still miss what he’s trying to show you in the “unsuccessful” sermon, the unfruitful season, or the private wrestling that no one applauds. The forge is found there, in the frustration, in the stillness, in the stretching that pulls you beyond comfort.
Three lessons from the forge
Over the years, I’ve learned that God uses the forge to shape three things every leader needs.
- Formation over performance
You can produce results without being formed, but it won’t last. Leadership divorced from spiritual transformation becomes hollow. The challenging years matter because they detox us from needing applause to feel faithful. God isn’t rushing to give you a platform; He’s preparing your posture. - People over preference (from “Who Are You Ministering To?”)
One of the great tests of leadership is learning to serve the people God actually gave you, not the ones you wish you had. Every leader has preferences: the kind of disciples we connect with, the personalities that make ministry easier. But the forge of leadership strips that away. It forces you to see that your role isn’t to form people into your image but to help them discover God’s. Ministry stops being a stage for self-expression and becomes an act of love. The longer you lead, the more God calls you to care for those who stretch you, not just those who mirror you. - Conviction over comfort (from “Leading in the Tension”)
The forge also forms courage. Leading in a polarized world means holding biblical conviction without losing humility, standing firm without becoming rigid. We live in a time when people expect leaders to pick a side quickly and loudly. But faithful leadership often means staying in the tension — listening longer, discerning slower, refusing easy extremes. The heat of that tension doesn’t destroy you; it refines you. Every generation needs leaders who can hold truth and grace in the same hands without dropping either.
An invitation to reflect
The challenge for leaders today isn’t lack of opportunity; it’s lack of reflection. We’re so quick to plan the next event, write the next message, or fix the next problem that we rarely stop to ask what God is forming in us through the process.
The forge invites us to slow down. To pause between doing and becoming. To resist the temptation to define ourselves by production or retreat into passivity. It asks us to listen again for God’s voice in places that feel ordinary—or even painful.
So let me ask you:
- Where might God be forming you right now, even if nothing looks productive?
- What area of your life or ministry feels like fire? Could that be the forge at work?
- Are you treasuring the walk with him more than the wins you can count?
Don’t rush through the discomfort. Don’t run from the silence. The hidden places often hold the most sacred shaping.
A call to stay in the forge
MetaForge Leadership was written for weary leaders who still believe God isn’t finished with them. It’s for the ones who have been burned by ministry but still want to serve faithfully. For those who are just starting out and want to build on something deeper than charisma. And for every follower of Jesus who senses there’s more to leadership than results; it’s about formation, not performance.
This book will challenge you to examine your rhythms, your motives, and your posture. It will walk you through the hidden years, the inner life, the liminal seasons, and the tensions that test every leader. But more than anything, it will remind you that God’s work in you is never wasted.
The forge never closes. Whether you’re in a season of pressure, transition, or renewal, God is still shaping you through it all. Stay low. Stay faithful. And let him do the refining work that success can’t give and failure can’t take away.
Because in the end, the low man still wins.
If this resonates with you, or if you’re in a season where God’s fire feels hotter than usual, I wrote MetaForge Leadership to walk with you through it. The book releases next week. My prayer is that it helps leaders rediscover the sacred work of being formed before leading, and to remember that the forge never closes.
